$100 in 1979 is worth $180 in 1990,
because prices increased 80.0% over that period, an average of
5.49% a year.
$100 in 1979 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.0%
Average inflation rate
5.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.03
CPI in 1979
72.6
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1979 → 1990
$180
$100 in 1990 → 1979
$55.55
What happened to prices between 1979 and 1990
Between 1979 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 72.6 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.0%, which works out to an average of
5.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1979 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1990: the 1979 dollar
lost 44.5% of its purchasing power over
these 11 years.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
Every 1979 amount converts to 1990 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,800, and $10,000 becomes $18,003.
Amount in 1979
Value in 1990
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$9.00
$10.00
$18.00
$20.00
$36.01
$50.00
$90.01
$100
$180
$500
$900
$1,000
$1,800
$5,000
$9,001
$10,000
$18,003
$100,000
$180,028
$1,000,000
$1,800,275
Inflation by spending category, 1979–1990
Between 1979 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 141.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.2%, against 80.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1979
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1979 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.49%
$180
Medical care
8.33%
$241
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.93%
$188
Housing
5.66%
$183
Transportation
4.99%
$171
Food
4.70%
$166
Energy
4.09%
$155
Apparel
3.51%
$146
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1979: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1979 to 1990
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 13.50% a year, and slowest in the 1980s (4.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1979–1990 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1979, at end
1979–1980
13.50%
13.5%
$113
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1979
$100 from 1979 had already become $143 by
1984, on its way to $180 in 1990; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1979 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1979 to 1990: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1979 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1979-to-1990/